what is prison for? to only correct or to only punish? before young offenders' institution, there were borstals. in many ways scum can be summed up as yet another prison drama, except that the prisoners are young adults but everything else is exactly the same as prison. the film starts out introducing us to three characters, carlin, davis and angel. carlin and davis both serves pivotal moment to the movie but otherwise like most other characters they have their fair shares of subplots without a traditional narrative backbone. these young detainees are harshly controlled by the officers by their best tool at disposal, establishing authority and fear through means of violence. the young inmates understand this rule as well, and the vicious cycle goes on. there was a temporary reprieve after the brutal act from carlin, but alas the cycle was never really broken. ray winston's performance of an entity of pure anger at the particular scene was so brilliantly well-acted. there is also a particular moment, a brief lecture from this matured inmate archer, when he starts putting trust to an old officer who's about to retire, how quickly the whole scenario goes bad is not unexpected at all. brutal and harrowing, a brilliant movie with realistic depiction of how far oppression and depriving an individual in this flawed system can really go. the uncompromising portrayal of racism, rape, suicide and extreme brutality is far from being exploitative but it carries enough shock power to unsettle its viewers and packed a powerful enough punch with the message it was trying to convey. with that final moment of dragging lifeless brutalized bodies into isolated cells that preceded the silent prayer scene, the hopeless living hell still continues.